Two Niner Diner a haven for aviation art

While small-craft airplanes soar overhead at Petaluma Municipal Airport, heads crane for a different kind of airshow within the walls of the Two Niner Diner, the longtime airport café located near the runway and hangars.

More than two-dozen models of old-time aircraft hang from the diner’s ceiling, most of them made with painstaking detail by the late Kenneth Copp, a Marin pilot and British Armed Forces paratrooper known for his meticulous craftsmanship on models and full-size airplanes alike.

They fly overhead with the breeze as diners come and go or servers carry orders out to the patio where there’s a close-up view of planes taking off and landing, Sonoma Mountain in the distance.

“You see things in here you wouldn’t see anywhere else,” said 80-year-old John Reed of Sausalito, a retired United Airlines captain and U.S. Air Force veteran who was close friends with Copp, the artisan who restored a vintage de Havilland Tiger Moth and crafted the replica hanging at the diner.

Common during World War II, the biplane is shown in flight in a framed photo on display at the diner. The model, measuring several feet, mimics every detail and showcases Copp’s model-making skill and artistry.

“His accuracy was extreme and his hands were just as steady as could be,” Reed said.

Reed and fellow pilot friends meet monthly at the Two Niner Diner to catch up and reminisce, some flying in, others driving. Copp was part of the group until his death two years ago at age 89.

When Petaluma residents Dan and Jone Kelly opened the diner 25 years ago, they discovered it was an ideal backdrop for aviation memorabilia. Copp was among those who asked to display items, his Tiger Moth the first model in the overhead exhibit.

“They’re not mine, they’re Ken’s,” said Dan Kelly, 75. “It’s in his will that these planes are left to certain people, with the stipulation they stay here as long as we have the restaurant.”

The models include warplanes, antique planes and a few newer types, plus the Pan American airplane from the classic 1942 romantic film, “Casablanca.” One plane, a C-47, features a paratrooper and static cords.

Each of Copp’s models has a wingspan of at least two feet - some considerably larger - and started as drawings in aviation magazines.

“Ken would decide on something fairly unique (to reproduce),” Reed said.

He enlarged the drawings at a copy shop to create a pattern, the size dependent on the wingspan he wanted. “Then,” Reed said, “he’d go about building the whole thing himself to the last detail.”

For customers like Zane Cresse of Petaluma, visiting the Two Niner Diner isn’t just about the hearty servings of classic diner fare. The aviation-themed décor and nearby taxiing planes enhance the experience.

“Kids love the airplanes and I love them as an adult,” said Cresse, 38, a computer network engineer and aspiring pilot. “Maybe I even love them more than the kids.”

He’s partial to a silver B-17 bomber model, “the one like you see on ‘Twilight Zone.’”

Kelly credits pilots and other aviation enthusiasts with giving the diner its unique décor. People stop by with photos or mementos, from a deck of first-class American Airlines playing cards to propellers, old-time airplane radios and framed nose art pins-ups of shapely women decorating B-17 bombers.

A print of a humorous watercolor painting by artist Huntly Maury is the latest addition. It shows a Petaluma Egg Lines DC-3 called the “Yoke One,” with the Two Niner Diner in the background.

“This is how it happens down here,” Kelly said. “Things just show up.”

He’s particularly proud of the 75-plus vintage aviation photographs customers have shared, many from World War II - warplanes in flight, flying aces in goggles, uniformed crews.

“Those come from me talking to people,” he said.

Many of the black-and-white photos were restored by Kelly, a retired photo lithographer who worked for Rolling Stone and Outside magazines.

Some of those in the framed photos are strangers; others are customers, friends or acquaintances.

Many are locals who flew during World War II.

“Thank your lucky stars there was a generation like that,” Kelly said.

He attributes the diner’s success to his wife, who earned her pilot’s license in her 40s and runs the restaurant. Customers, though, and the artistry of Kenneth Copp, are responsible for the aviation décor that adds to the diner’s charm.

From the black-and-white checkered floors on a 45-degree angle to the old-fashioned soda fountain and authentic marble-topped counter and black booths, the 80-seat diner (counting patio and indoor tables) is a throwback to the heyday of airport restaurants.

“Airport cafes and diners are dying,” Kelly said. “They’re no longer around. They’re something of the past.”

The Kellys’ establishment still draws a crowd, especially when flight conditions are clear - and when visitors have a hankering for a juicy burger, a refreshing orange flip, the signature blueberry coffee cake and views inside and out.

“You don’t need a newspaper when you come here,” Kelly said.

Two Niner Diner, 561 Skyranch Road, Petaluma, serves breakfast and lunch Wednesday to Sunday. For information, call 765-2900.

Contact Towns Correspondent Dianne Reber Hart at sonomatowns@gmail.com.